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    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/22\/arts\/black-jefferson-descendant-buried-monticello.html?emc=edit_nn_20260923&nl=the-morning&segment_id=226928",
    "parsed_content": "AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTA Black Jefferson Descendant Is Buried at Monticello for the First TimeThe burial came as the Smithsonian released DNA research it said provides \u201cextraordinary proof\u201d that Thomas Jefferson had children with Sally Hemings.Listen \u00b7 5:42 min Share full articleGayle Jessup White burying the remains of her brother, Cedric Jessup, in the Jefferson family graveyard at Monticello. Jessup was descended via a great-great-grandson of the third president.Credit...via Gayle Jessup WhiteBy Jennifer SchuesslerSept. 22, 2026See more of our coverage in your search results.Encuentra m\u00e1s de nuestra cobertura en los resultados de b\u00fasqueda. Add The New York Times on GoogleAgrega The New York Times en Google One Saturday this month, three people gathered in the cemetery at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson\u2019s hilltop estate in Virginia. After opening up the earth, they placed a container of ashes into the ground, along with family mementos and a photograph of a baby cradled in his mother\u2019s arms.It was a simple, poignant burial for Cedric Jessup Jr. of Washington, who died in 2020 from complications of Covid-19. But it was also a historic moment: the first burial of a Black descendant in the Jefferson family graveyard.Jessup was not a descendant of Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman whose relationship with Jefferson has been a subject of debate for more than 200 years. He was descended via a great-great-grandson.But the burial comes as new DNA research from the Smithsonian Institution offers what its researchers say is \u201cextraordinary proof\u201d that Jefferson fathered children with Hemings. And that, some say, raises another question: Who is a Jefferson?AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTGayle Jessup White, Jessup\u2019s sister, organized the burial and said she welcomed the research, which extracted Jefferson\u2019s genome from a strand of his hair and compared it with the DNA of 13 living Hemings and Jefferson family descendants. She said she hoped the research, which she was not part of, would help open the cemetery to Hemings\u2019s descendants.\u201cThe descendants of Hemings are also Jefferson descendants,\u201d White said, adding, \u201cThere is no place on the mountaintop or anyplace in America where Black people should be barred.\u201dJessup, known as Dickie, had severe intellectual disabilities and was largely nonverbal, living in an institution and then in a group home, White said.\u201cHe seemed to enjoy the life he had,\u201d she said, becoming emotional. \u201cHe liked to dress well. He liked watching TV and looking at magazines.\u201dIt remains to be seen how the Smithsonian\u2019s research, described in a new book and a scientific paper, will be received by Jefferson descendants. Some contributed DNA to the effort. Others strongly reject the idea that he had a relationship with Hemings.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe Monticello Association, a private group of Jefferson descendants that owns and maintains the graveyard, did not respond to requests for comment. According to its website, membership and burial in the cemetery are limited to \u201cdirect, lineal descendants\u201d of Jefferson\u2019s two daughters with his wife, Martha.The association, founded in 1913, is separate from the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello. The foundation, a private nonprofit, accepts that Jefferson fathered at least six children with Hemings, describing it as a \u201csettled historical matter.\u201dImageIncluded in Jessup\u2019s grave were mementos from his surviving siblings and a photograph showing his mother holding him as a child.Credit...via Gayle Jessup WhiteWhite, a former journalist, first learned of her Jefferson ancestry at age 13, when she overheard a conversation between her father and her sister.This was in the early 1970s, \u201cwhen we weren\u2019t taught that Jefferson owned people,\u201d she said. \u201cI was taken aback. I was determined that I would find out the truth.\u201dIn 2021, White published a book about her family, which drew on oral histories, census records and letters to show descent through Jefferson\u2019s great-great-grandson Moncure Robinson Taylor and Rachael Robinson, a Black woman who had been enslaved by the family.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTWhile not a direct descendant of Hemings, White discovered she is also the great-great-great-granddaughter of Hemings\u2019s brother Peter, she said.In 2025, White and her son, Charles, joined the Monticello Association at the urging of Jefferson descendants who wanted to broaden the group. They were the first Black members.She was already very familiar with the mountaintop, as Monticello is known. She worked for a decade at the foundation as a public relations and community engagement officer, and contributed to Getting Word, its family history project for descendants of the more than 610 people enslaved by Jefferson.\u201cI have this real love for Monticello,\u201d White said. \u201cIt has a very optimistic message that needs to get out.\u201dJessup\u2019s burial was also attended by White\u2019s husband and by Robert Eppes, a seventh-generation descendant through Jefferson\u2019s daughter Maria. Eppes, a former president of the Monticello Association, came from his home in Delaware to dig the grave himself.This burial \u201cwas huge for me on a personal level in terms of the generational healing that I need to have,\u201d he said.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTJessup \u201chas a right to be there,\u201d Eppes added. \u201cThose are the facts of the matter.\u201dIn 2002, after an earlier DNA study, the association held a vote on whether to admit Hemings descendants as members. Eppes was among the majority who voted against it.That caused what he called \u201cirreparable harm\u201d to his relationships with some descendants. But that study \u2014 which indicated only that one of Hemings\u2019s sons had been fathered by a Jefferson male \u2014 \u201cwasn\u2019t certain enough,\u201d he said.Eppes has not yet seen the Smithsonian\u2019s DNA evidence, which the researchers say shows a 99.9 percent likelihood that Jefferson fathered children with Hemings. But if change comes at the association, he said, it will be in \u201cbaby steps.\u201d\u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing and what many people in these two extended families have been doing for a long time now,\u201d he said. \u201cSeeking understanding and relationships and grace.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-22T15:16:35+00:00",
    "author_name": "Jennifer Schuessler",
    "site_name": "The New York Times",
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    "ai_headline": "A Black Jefferson Descendant Is Buried at Monticello for the First Time",
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    "ai_excerpt": "Cedric Jessup Jr., a Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson, was buried in the Jefferson family graveyard at Monticello, marking a historic first. This event coincides with new Smithsonian DNA research providing \"extraordinary proof\" of Jefferson fathering children with Sally Hemings.",
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